May 2010 iris annouces new Americas regional management team
iris unveils new regional management structure for Americas
May 12th, 2010
iris has announced the introduction of a new regional management structure for the Americas, as it looks to strengthen its capability across North and South America.The team, led by iris’ joint global CEO, Stewart Shanley, will see key figureheads assume new regional roles as part of the restructure in addition to senior management relocating from the London office.
The new regional management team for the Americas, who will all take up their roles immediately, will be as follows: Stewart Shanley, joint global CEO and co-founder of iris; Sean Reynolds, joint global creative director; John Baker, who will relocate from the UK to take up the role of regional digital director; Ben Essen, who will also relocate from the UK to become head of planning; Matt McRoberts, head of business development and Zeyd Rahman, new business director.
Shanley said: “Since the launch of our first US office in 2005, we’ve focused on building our capability and client base. This is a market that is driven by scale, stance and distribution and the benefit of being independent is that we can invest in the geographies and disciplines where our clients need us the most. We now have full service offices in New York, Atlanta, Portland and Miami which has helped us attract clients like Coca-Cola, adidas, Coty and Sony Ericsson.
“The new team sees us combine some of our best-in-class talent from across the network in areas such as digital, planning, creative and general management. This core group of experts will oversee their discipline across the region, ensuring that all our US clients have the benefit of this top quality talent collaborating on their campaigns,” Shanley continued.
Regionally, the agency has offices in New York, Portland, Atlanta and Miami, the latter of which services Latin America. An immediate focus for the new team will be maximising opportunities around iris’ latest offering – the fast-growing Atlanta office, which works with some of iris’ key clients, which include Sony Ericsson, Coca-Cola and InterContinental Hotels Group. The Miami office is fast becoming known as a creative hotshop for South America thanks to recent campaigns like the Johnnie Walker responsible drinking TV commercial starring cricket legend Viv Richards.
iris, which has 17 offices in 10 countries, made the decision to decentralise the global management structure and implement the new organisation in order to help the agency grow in four key territories – Europe, America, China and Asia.
Of the restructure, Ian Millner, joint CEO and co-founder of iris, said: “To stay successful, you have to change as you grow. The new regional management structure will help us expand more quickly and drive the development of marketing services as we look to establish the agency model of the future which is smarter, faster and more flexible in delivering true integration.”
iris was set up by Millner and Shanley in 1999 as an alternative to the traditional networks. Today, the agency provides fully integrated solutions for clients through its specialist offerings spanning advertising, digital, sponsorship, experiential, PR, DM, CRM and strategic consultancy services.
iris’ American operation works with blue-chip clients including Sony Ericsson, Sony, adidas, Hertz, Office Depot, Coty Inc and Time Warner, and was ranked 5th in the large business category of Crain’s Best Places to Work 2008.
